TV Supplementary - Celebrity Eggheads

Celebrity Eggheads


You probably know what I’m going to say don’t you ? Well, perhaps. I always feel a little guilty writing about Eggheads – as opposed to Are You An Egghead – since the Eggheads themselves are such nice people. Alright, I would never claim that I know any of them that well, but they are dedicated quizzers, and every time I have been on a show with any of them they have always been very nice and pleasant people, who have gone out of their way to make you feel comfortable, and to help you to enjoy appearing in a show with them. Which, as I say, does make me feel a little guilty when I write about the show, because as a show, I don’t think its necessarily the greatest thing since sliced bread. Which is not their fault in the slightest.

Still, that’s not what this post is about. A second series of Celebrity Eggheads has begun, and if for no other reason than it features the first appearance of newest Egghead Pat Gibson, its worth watching for that. In the first show a team of Radio 2 DJs took on a team lacking Kevin and Judith, but featuring a formidable line up of Pat, Daphne, Barry, Chris and CJ. Radio 2 DJs eh ? Wow, did that mean the Beeb were unleashing the big guns, then , like Wogan, Bruce, Wright, Ross and Evans ? Well, actually, no. It meant a team consisting of Paul Gambaccini, Suzi Quattro – yes – Richard Allinson – OK – Clare Teal and Alex Lester – pardon ? Had Jeremy Vine persuaded his radio 2 mates to spike Dermot’s guns by only unleashing the B and C team players ? Alright, lets not be horrible.

In the head to heads Clare Teal managed to put out Chris, who , according to fellow Eggheads and Dermot himself doesn’t have a TV. A likely story. She and Alex took the Eggheads to 2 – all, but failed on their last question. So that’s a miss from tonight’s jury , I’m afraid.

Tonight’s show saw the challenge of the Oddballs, a team of sports presenters and sportsmen– John Inverdale, Dennis Taylor, Mark Lawrenson , Graham Bell ( former Olympic skier ) and Bob Champion. Ok – no cracks about obscure team members this time, they all reached the top of their sport in one way and another. They faced another Kevin-less team. That was the good news. The bad news was that they still had to play Pat, Chris, Barry, Daphne and Judith.

The Oddballs fared rather better on the head to heads. John Inverdale took out Chris Hughes on Music. Mark Lawrenson took out Judith 2 – 0 on Geography. Dennis Taylor had his opportunity to take out Barry on sport, but managed to pot the cue ball in sudden death . He failed to answer that Honda became renamed the Brawn GP team.

In the final round John Inverdale remembered a pub called Pope’s Grotto to take a 2 : 1 lead – a lead which immediately disappeared as the Eggheads knew Joshua N’Komo was a Zimbabwean politician. Asked who directed the film “What Lies Beneath” the Oddballs correctly answered Robert Zemeckis. The Eggheads recognised the titles of some dutch newspapers to take us to sudden death. Alas, the Oddballs didn’t remember that Steve Macqueen drove a Ford Mustang in Bullitt. Of course the Eggheads knew that the French words for ‘green of grease’ gives us verdigris.

Poor old Pudsey – there’s little chance of him getting much of a dividend for Children in Need from this series, unless the Eggheads get asked some very unusual questions indeed. Which as we know, is well within the bounds of possibility,but kind of stretches credibility a bit.